Well over two decades ago, one of my favourite university tutors in family law often delighted in reminding me of an expression that Charles Dickens had popularised in Oliver Twist. Was it not Bumble who had professed to Brownlow that the law is an ass - or to be more faithful to 19th century diction, "The law is a ass - a idiot [sic]"?

“Imagine...it's easy if you try”. It's a good lyric but John Lennon was not entirely accurate. What might pejoratively be described as airy-fairy and perhaps slightly wishful supposition is not particularly difficult. More is asked of us by the kind of creative, imaginative thinking which has the power to transform.

While the trial at Stratford Magistrates' Court in east London of five Christian anti-arms fair protesters is tough on the defendants (including Ekklesia associate Symon Hill), it is already doing a good job of exposing the issues in a number of ways.

The experiences and voices of a centre run by the Presbyterian Church in South Korea provide important lessons concerning the multiple insecurities felt by 'migrant wives', as the women are called, in a fast moving society. Naveen Qayyum, from Pakistan, reflects on the issues raised about migration and the experience of women at the World Council of Churches 10th Assembly meeting in Busan.